RSU execs meeting campaign promises

As the new year begins, Ryerson Students’ Union (RSU) executives are tallying their campaign promises and gearing up to complete the remainder of their work for the semester. With the recent resignation of vice-president student life & events Lauren Emberson, remaining executives—overseen by RSU president Susanne Nyaga—are obligated to divide Emberson’s work amongst themselves until elections in February.

Nyaga said that before her resignation, Emberson wrapped up the planning for her projects scheduled for this semester, including the Winter Week of Welcome, Culture Jam and the Montreal reading week trip. Nyaga said the RSU doesn’t have any other big events planned, and would rather stick to what they know they can do well.

Here’s a look at each executive’s platform and what they’ve accomplished thus far.

Ali Yousaf – VP Operations

Yousaf says he’s met most of his campaign promises, which included implementing an online submission* for the CopyRITE printing service, relocating the RSU’s lost and found services and establishing a pop-up shop for the Member Services Office (MSO), where students can buy discount Metropasses and movie passes.

Yousaf said a new CopyRITE system will launch this week and that policies are already in place to automate the lost and found system. “I’m hoping that by the end of my term, that project will be done,” he said.

Yousaf wants students to be able to message an automated system to check if their lost items have been deposited at the SCC’s lost and found. He says the RSU has worked to centralize lost and found systems around campus so that any items collected are sent to the SCC after two days.

The MSO pop-up shop was not established this year. Yousaf said it proved too difficult because the office moved to a new internal system for managing pay and prices, setting back the project by six to seven months. Changing the lost and found system also delayed that project.

Camryn Harlick – VP Equity

When running for vice-president equity, Harlick addressed Indigenous and accessibility issues within his campaign, as well as the assembly of the Sexual Assault Survivor Support Line (SASSL) referendum. According to Harlick, most of the pillars from his political platform have been met, and are on track to be completed by the end of the school year, adding that his proficiency in achieving most of them within the first semester is a good accomplishment.

“The Canada 150 campaign is done, Truth and Reconciliation updates are done—I ran campaigns that dealt with colonialism and accessibility,” said Harlick.

“For SASSL, we successfully ran the referendum, which will more than double our budget. So they can become a full-fledged equity centre.”

Harlick added that he is in the process of meeting with Farrah Khan, Ryerson’s coordinator for its Office of Sexual Violence Support and Education, in order to complete his work on creating a sexual assault policy for the RSU.

Daniel Lis – VP Education

Lis planned on bringing a transit discount system at Ryerson, creating an internship grant project and adding bike lanes on campus.

The Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) unanimously agreed to back the U-Pass project in December. The discount U-Pass would be administered on Presto fare cards. All students at participating schools would buy in and be eligible to use the discount since the pass would be included in their tuition as a levy. There would not be an option to opt out so students would pay for the pass whether they use it or not.

Lis said he expects the TTC to come back with a price for the pass in February. He would then be able to come to Ryerson’s Board of Governors to approve a referendum to implement the pass, which he said would probably happen in September.

Lis said he’s been campaigning for the Gould Street transition to a pedestrian-only zone, but it isn’t one of Ryerson’s priorities until the new Daphne Cockwell Health Sciences Complex on Church Street is completed.

Clarification: This article has been updated to clarify that Ali Yousaf has created an online submission for CopyRITE, payment is still in-person.

Correction: In an earlier version of this article, The Eye stated that the Daphne Cockwell building is on Jarvis Street. It is actually on Church Street. The Eye regrets this error.